Going through Dubai airport and through the scanners, this lady comes up to me and asks me to go into a room so they can search me, Wow did I get the once over, I really did think she was going to ask me to strip but she then leaves and comes back with that drug scanner stick thing and went all over my clothes and luggage with it and then walks out and left me standing there, only to be told by another lady to leave the room, weird, do I really look suspiscioius? finally boarding the flight to Milan which was a good 6 hours flight and this time the plane was not full arriving in Milan around 8:30 pm and still daylight but this time the line at the passport control was so long and a hell of a wait to get through, the passport man must have really been over the whole thing as je hardly looked at my passport and then we were on our way to pick up our luggage and find the hotel's transport and I think this driver had had a long day and just wanted to go home as we were hitting speeds of 140 on the freeway, finally arriving at our hotel an hour later, once booked in, we just dropped ouir luggage and out the door to have a look around heading for the plza area that we saw coming into the city, finally heading back to the hotel after a few hours and to bed

We are staying at the Hotel Dei Cavalier which is in the Duomo district and quite central to everything

A good nights sleep was had and we were up early to find a cafe for breakfast, but first on our way we realised the cathedral was opening so bought tickets and decided to have a look before the crowds came and this was not a dissapointment it is truly beautiful

The Milan Cathedral is the cathedral church of Milan and is dedicated to St Mary of the Nativity and took nearly six centuries to complete, it is the largest church in Italy (The larger St Peter's Basilivca is in the state of the Vatican) the third largest in Europe and the Fourth largest in the world.

From there we headed to the Galleria for breakfast and coffee, it is a b***** having to always ask for the coffee to be extra hot, they don't seem to understand the concept!

We had the plan to take the fast train to Venice tomorrow (Thursday) and went to the underground station to try and work it out, finally asking a lady where we catch the train only to be told we have to go to the central station, but couldnt find out where that was, giving up on her and found some men who seemed official and they were very helpful, back to get tickets and then follow the yellow line catch the train and go only four stops and then you are at the central station, no problem as long as the lines are coloured you cant go wrong, arriving at the station it was then trying to find where to buy tickets, thinking we go to a booking office but no everything is automated by pressing buttons on a machine, lucky enough a youg railway staff member helped us and then we had tickets,

Leaving the station to work out where we were ,we spotted the "Hop on Hop off " bus and headed for that and spent the next few hours going around Milan,

We visited Sforza Castle which was built in the 15th century and was the main residence in the city of its Visconti Lords and was destroyed in 1447 and reconstructions started again in 1450, Leonardi da Vinci frescoed several rooms. this castle/fort has quite a colourful history and was transferred for military use to the city of Milan and is now used as a museum. the building is quite awesome and huge and unfortunately I have read up on its history and still fail to understand its purpose

Leaving the fort we wandered down one of the streets/mall looking for something to eat and ended up sitting down to a banana split and fresh berry icecream. and then made our way back to the hotel, day over.